Fisher Events

There will be a public tour of the exhibition on Thursday November 28th at 6 pm. No RSVP required, simply come to the Fisher exhibition area at 6 pm. The tour will last approximately 45 minutes.

This workshop will engage participants with examples across a range of eras and formats – from the unusual to the everyday – to learn about Canada’s unique history in print.

Please join us for a special one-hour librarian-led informational tour of the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the Fisher Library. Learn about the history of the department, the strengths of the collection, how we build our collections, and how researchers can register and use our materials.

Please join us for the Fisher Library's second public tour. This time it's with a special twist: it will be Halloween inspired!

Join us for a one-day display of acts of resistance preserved in newspapers, books, posters, and publications about Venezuela.

This workshop will introduce the key elements in the production and use of Western medieval manuscripts. While focused on Europe, it will situate Western manuscripts within a global context.

This is the inaugural J. Edward Chamberlin Lecture, delivered by U of T Law Professor John Borrows, the Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law. Professor Borrows is a member of the Chippewa of the Nawash First Nation in Ontario, Canada, and he is an acclaimed scholar and leading authority on Canadian Indigenous law and constitutional law.

Please join the Fisher Library and One Little Goat Theatre Company for a rare live reading of Chapter 5 from James Joyce’s extraordinary, final novel, Finnegans Wake, featuring Irish Canadian actor Richard Harte, and directed by Adam Seelig. Displayed during the reading will be books, maps and art from the Fisher’s collections that relate to Joyce’s novel.

Ever wondered what goes on in the Rare Books and Special Collections department of the University of Toronto? Then why not join us for a special one-hour informational tour at the home of RBSC, the Fisher Library.

This fall we welcome you to join us for a series of virtual seminars on Persian lithographic printing organized by Mahdi Ganjavi, Shabnam Golkhandan, Mohamad Tavakoli

In this first Friends of Fisher lecture of the 2024/25 season, Tamara J. Walker retrace some of American pianist Philippa Schuylers’ steps and reflect on her influence in the world of women travelers.

Please join us for the Fisher's biennial fair featuring over a dozen book makers and artists.

Join us for a display of special collections on LGBTQ+ topics and reading performances, hosted by Dank Sinatra with guests Ella Mayo and Ocean La Vodka Giovanni.

This seminar will explore the role of community and institutional archives and libraries in the making, preservation, and dissemination of Black histories from multidisciplinary practices.

This 3-day seminar trains participants in low-barrier, non-invasive scientific imaging and analytic techniques appropriate for the study of manuscripts and printed books from a variety of global book traditions.

Join us for a special evening of music, songs, and poetry featuring singers, composers and poets.

Join us for a viewing of manuscripts, facsimiles and early printed books relating to the spread of Renaissance Humanism in Europe, and especially the role played in this process by Francesco Petrarca (or Petrarch) and Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (later Pope Pius II).

Dr. Winona Wheeler will speak on the origin stories of Cree syllabics, and how Cree people used their written words.

Will feature a display and discussion of archival and bibliographic collections documenting global protest and resistance movements.

Join us for a display of beautiful and rare Pesach (Passover) Haggadot, including Medieval manuscripts, early printed books, Kibbutz and secular Haggadot, as well as modern artists' Haggadot.

Join us for an open house to celebrate National Indigenous Languages Day with a display of manuscripts, dictionaries, hymnals, periodicals, and primers in Indigenous languages, including newly purchased material.

In this lecture, Surekha Davies shows how print and manuscript miscellanies and geographical works produced in Europe by geographers, naturalists, and collectors like Sir Hans Sloane were artefacts with which their compilers puzzled through the boundaries (or lack thereof) between human, animal, and the idea of the monster.

This workshop will examine the history of artists' books by looking at both contemporary and historical examples, along with exploring book structures that will test one's precept of what a book is.

This workshop will introduce the key elements in the production and use of Western medieval manuscripts. While focused on Europe, it will situate Western manuscripts within a global context.

Celebrate Black History Month at the Fisher Library Open House! Visitors will see a display of rare books and archival materials drawn from across our collections.